Mortimer Adler’s “How to Read a Book” left a big impact on me as a young reader. It shaped my ability to read intelligently and think critically to such an extent, I consider the steps outlined in it prerequisite to discussion. For this reason, I keep this old post pinned to the top of the page.
Here are the steps to good reading as outlined in this now classic liberal arts work:
First Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Finding What a Book is About
- Classify the book according to kind and subject matter.
- State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity.
- Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole.
- Define the problem or problems the author has tried to solve.
Second Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Interpreting a Book’s Contents
- Come to terms with the author by interpreting his key words.
- Grasp the author’s leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences.
- Know the author’s arguments, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences.
- Determine which of his problems the author has solved, and which he has not; and of the latter, decide which the author knew he had failed to solve.
Third Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge
General Maxims of Intellectual Etiquette
- Do not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of the book. (Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgement, until you can say “I understand.”)
- Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously.
- Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgement you make.
Special Criteria for Points of Criticism
- Show wherein the author is uninformed.
- Show wherein the author is misinformed.
- Show wherein the author is illogical.
- Show wherein the author’s analysis or account is incomplete.
